New species of Allosaurus discovered in Utah

January 22, 2020

A remarkable new species of meat-eating dinosaur has been unveiled at the Natural History Museum of Utah. Paleontologists unearthed the first specimen in early 1990s in Dinosaur National Monument in northeastern Utah. The huge carnivore inhabited the flood plains of western North America during the Late Jurassic Period, between 157-152 million years ago, making it […]



New museum director selected

December 19, 2019

University of Utah Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Dan Reed announced that Jason Cryan has accepted the offer to serve as executive director of the Natural History Museum of Utah effective March 2020. Cryan replaces former museum Executive Director Sarah George, who left the museum after nearly three decades to join the U’s advancement […]



Past climate change: a warning for the future?

June 17, 2019

A new study of climate changes and their effects on past societies offers a sobering glimpse of social upheavals that might happen in the future. The prehistoric groups studied lived in the Amazon Basin of South America hundreds of years ago, before European contact, but the disruptions that occurred may carry lessons for our time, […]



Sarah B. George to take on new role at the University of Utah

April 11, 2019

Heidi Woodbury, vice president for institutional advancement at the University of Utah, is pleased to announce that Sarah B. George will join her office as campus chief advancement officer. George is currently the executive director of the Natural History Museum of Utah. “We are delighted to have Sarah join the university’s advancement team in a […]



Human ancestors not to blame for ancient mammal extinctions in Africa

November 26, 2018

New research disputes a long-held view that our earliest tool-bearing ancestors contributed to the demise of large mammals in Africa over the last several million years. Instead, the researchers argue that long-term environmental change drove the extinctions, mainly in the form of grassland expansion likely caused by falling atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels. Tyler Faith, […]



Newly Discovered Armored Dinosaur From Utah Reveals Intriguing Family History

July 20, 2018

Fossils of a new genus and species of an ankylosaurid dinosaur—Akainacephalus johnsoni—have been unearthed in the Kaiparowits Formation of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (GSENM), and are revealing new details about the diversity and evolution of this group of armored dinosaurs.  Expected to look like other North American Late Cretaceous ankylosaurid dinosaurs with smooth bony armor […]



National Science Foundation Funds Natural History Museum of Utah, U College of Education to develop online learning environment

June 21, 2018

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a grant with total funding expected to reach $1.3 million this month to the Natural History Museum of Utahand the College of Education at the University of Utah to develop and evaluate an on-line learning environment to support student learning in the biosciences.  This pioneering project, titled Engaging […]



Design for the Disappearing Dark Sky

April 20, 2018

The University of Utah multidisciplinary design students teamed up with the Consortium for Dark Sky Studies to create an exhibit at the Natural History Museum of Utah that showcases Utah’s unique exposure to the night sky. The exhibit illustrates issues such as light pollution and how artificial light has impacted the natural beauty and habitats […]



Scientists discover evidence of early human innovation, pushing back evolutionary timeline

March 15, 2018

An international collaboration, including the Natural History Museum of Utah at the University of Utah, has discovered that early humans in eastern Africa had—by about 320,000 years ago—begun trading with distant groups, using color pigments and manufacturing more sophisticated tools than those of the Early Stone Age. These newly discovered activities approximately date to the […]



Targeted forest regeneration

August 23, 2017

Tropical forests contain more than one-half of all plant and animal species on Earth. Unfortunately, they are disappearing at the highest rate of any forests worldwide. Furthermore, many of the most threatened tropical species are restricted to 20 or so biodiversity hotspots, which are sites that have lost more than 70 percent of their original […]